{"id":22476,"date":"2012-09-11T04:32:57","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T04:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/wordpress\/?p=22476"},"modified":"2012-09-11T04:32:57","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T04:32:57","slug":"swat-gets-heat-over-mauling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/2012\/09\/swat-gets-heat-over-mauling\/","title":{"rendered":"Swat gets heat over mauling"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEBU CITY — Two police officers who were caught on camera beating a 29-year-old Papua New Guinea national filed a complaint against him before the Cebu City Prosecutor\u2019s Office on Monday afternoon.
\nBut also on Monday, the two officers from the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) were relieved while they face an investigation for causing Bennidict Penini\u2019s physical injuries.<\/p>\n

Police Officer (PO1) Phillip James Tanza and PO2 Bradford Lavandero will now be reporting to the Office of the City Director\u2019s holding unit in the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
\nALL QUIET NOW. Papua New Guinea national Bennidict Penini (right) sits outside the Palace of Justice with his friends and lawyer, Atty. Fritz Lastimoso (third from left), just a short distance from Swat policemen PO1 Philip James Tanza (left) and PO2 Bradford Lavandero (second from left). (Sun.Star Photo\/Arni Aclao)
\nPolice Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas Director Marcelo Garbo Jr. ordered the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Branch to conduct the investigation to be led by Superintendent Audie Villasin.
\nThe Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will conduct a separate investigation on the two officers. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is waiting for the investigation report from the CHR.
\nPenini, an information technology student, was subdued by the police officers after he allegedly ran amuck in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City last Sunday morning.
\nPO2 Lavandero and PO1 Tanza filed a direct assault of a person in authority complaint against him, saying he threw stones at them during the incident.
\nDuring the inquest proceeding, Prosecutor Aida Sanchez lowered the complaint from direct assault to resistance to arrest.
\nSanchez told reporters there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to support the more serious charge.
\nAccording to the Revised Penal Code, some elements that constitute direct assault are when the offender \u201cmakes an attack, employs force, makes a serious intimidation or makes a serious resistance,\u201d and \u201cthe offender knows that the one he is assaulting is a person in authority.\u201d
\nPenini, assisted by lawyer Fritz Lastimoso, opted not to file a counter-affidavit to answer the police officers\u2019 allegations.
\nWith this development, the information of the case will be filed in the Municipal Trial Courts in Cities (MTCC).
\nSanchez said a bail of P2,000 is usually set in such cases.
\nQuarrel
\nLastimoso said that Penini will talk to his parents about the possibility of having the case settled outside the court.
\nAround 11:30 a.m. last Sunday, Lavandero and Tanza received a radio message telling them to support two Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) teams that responded to a trouble alarm outside Alicia Towers in Barangay Banilad.
\nWhen they arrived, they saw Penini allegedly throwing stones at a group of bystanders.
\n\u201cWe approached the said foreign national and introduced ourselves as police officers and instructed the same to put down the stones,\u201d they said in their joint affidavit. \u201cBut instead of obeying, (Penini) became more aggressive and threw several stones at us.\u201d
\nAfterwards, Penini allegedly struck a stone on the jaw of taxi driver Giovanni Catib.
\n\u201cSensing that (Penini) can no longer be handled in a diplomatic manner, we decided to apply tolerable force against him,\u201d said the police officers.
\nUnnecessary
\nCatib, 33, failed to file a complaint against Penini on Monday. He was also caught on camera kicking Penini.
\n\u201cHasol ang kaso\u2026kon maapiki mo-file ko (A case would be a hassle\u2026if I\u2019ve no choice then I\u2019d file a case),\u201d he said.
\nIn a phone interview, Primo Cadampog of the CHR-Central Visayas said it was clear from the ABS-CBN video that the two officers kept hitting Penini even if he had calmed down.
\n\u201cThat was an unnecessary act,\u201d he said. Cadampog said the CHR still has to get the statements of both parties.
\nBefore Penini allegedly ran amuck, he was arguing with another Papua New Guinea national. When the other person left, Penini allegedly started throwing stones at passers-by and kept shouting.
\nThe responding officers said they tried to pacify Penini.
\nAn ABS-CBN Cebu crew covering the incident shot the video footage of Tanza and Lavandero hitting the head and body of Penini, who was lying on the sidewalk, with the butt of their rifles. They also kicked him.
\nCatib joined in and kicked Penini several times, until one of the officers stopped him.
\nDismayed
\nPenini was then brought to the Tourist Action Center (TAC).
\nCatib said he was thankful the two officers protected him.
\n\u201cKung wala lang sad gyud to siya (Penini) mamato, dili man sad gyud to siya ingon atuon sa mga pulis (If he hadn\u2019t thrown stones at people, the officers wouldn\u2019t have had to subdue him),\u201d explained Gatib.
\nMeanwhile, Antonio Go, a family friend of Penini, went to the Police Regional Office and reported that the parents of Penini, who are reportedly members of the parliament in Papua New Guinea, were dismayed by the incident.
\nGo, a Cebuano and also a Papua New Guinea citizen, said he worries about the 40,000 Filipinos working in that country.
\n\u201cIf the people in Papua New Guinea know of this, they might get back at us by doing something bad to the Filipinos out there,\u201d Go said.
\nHe said that Penini arrived in Cebu last June and is a student in one of the universities in the city. He added that there were 29 Papua New Guinean students who arrived in Cebu City to study along with Penini.
\nWhen the other parents learned about the incident, he was instructed by the parents to let their children go home, he said.
\nConnection
\nGo said that along with the other foreign students, they are scheduled to go home to Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, including Penini.
\nAlso on Monday, DFA-Central Visayas Director Elias Balawag said that Bienvenido Tejano, the Philippine ambassador to Papua New Guinea, called him to inquire about the incident.
\nTejano is reportedly concerned because his agency is promoting Cebu as a tourist destination in Papua New Guinea.
\nThe number of Papua New Guinea nationals who are coming to Cebu to study increased when Air Neugini, the country\u2019s flag carrier, started operating a direct flight to the Mactan Cebu International Airport just a few months ago.
\nActing Cebu City Mayor Joy Augustus Young is also concerned about the implications of the incident. He assured, though, that the city remains generally a peaceful place for foreign students.
\n\u201cAny report like this is not good because it might discourage some foreigners to come here to study. But overall, Cebu City is still a safe place. We\u2019ll get over this because it\u2019s not an everyday occurrence\u2026 it\u2019s an isolated case,\u201d Young said in a phone interview. (KAL\/JBT\/With EOB\/LCR\/Sun.Star Cebu)
\nhttp:\/\/www.sunstar.com.ph\/cebu\/local-news\/2012\/09\/11\/swat-gets-heat-over-mauling-242125<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.ClarkWineCenter.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CEBU CITY — Two police officers who were caught on camera beating a 29-year-old Papua New Guinea national filed a complaint against him before the Cebu City Prosecutor\u2019s Office on Monday afternoon. But also on Monday, the two officers from the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) were relieved while they face an investigation for causing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.clearwaterphilippines.com\/resort\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}